Will the community wide meeting on Tuesday make any difference in the fight to stop a highway over the Escarpment?

By Pepper Parr

BURLINGTON, ON  October 22, 2012  They want it to be another biggy; at least 400 people, closer to 800 would be really great.  They want you to once more make sure the provincial government, which is currently in hiding, knows that we are not interested in seeing any kind of a highway rammed through any part of the Escarpment.

The Stop Escarpment Highway Coalition will be a large part of the presentation made Tuesday evening.  The coalition is an organization that represents 14,000 people in 15 community organizations; true grass roots representation.

Burlington’s escarpment stalwart John Taylor will be there as will every other politician in the city along with the Regional Chair.

Not through this part of the Escarpment if you don’t mind. Citizens want to make sure the province fully understands how opposed they are to a road through this part of our city.

They will talk about an Environmental Assessment report the province has in hand – but we don’t know what the province plans to do with that report nor do we know at this time what the recommendations in the report suggest.

Mayor Goldring and Regional Chair Gary Carr were supposed to meet with the Minister of Transportation Bob Chiarelli and press home the views of the community – but given that the provincial government is in hiding – that meeting may not take place.  So we will have a meeting at which the public is expected to shout its support but no provincial government decision to discuss nor any of the recommendations the bureaucrats have put in front of the  Minister of Transportation.

Why then are we meeting?

What the provincial government decides to do in terms of planning for a highway through the Escarpment is really important to Burlington; but for a government that isn’t going to meet in the Legislature until sometime late in January at the earliest, and in the meantime is fighting for its political life – what has people hot and bothered in Burlington really isn’t going to matter all that much.  We are not a squeaky enough wheel to get much grease – or are we?

Burlington’s MP, Jane McKenna will be on hand.  This could be an awkward meeting for Ms McKenna; her party doesn’t have that much of a problem with a highway going through the Escarpment.  For the PC’s it’s all about jobs and if it takes a highway through a sensitive environment – well that just might be something Burlington has to live with.

It would be great if the Regional chair and the Mayor of Burlington could convince the Minister of Transportation to be at the meeting and make it crystal clear that he understands the issue and he understand our concerns and he will take our views back to Cabinet and do his level best to see that the Burlington we have today is the Burlington we will have twenty years from now.  He might politely ask that we make Burlington a Liberal seat to show our appreciation.

The options that were suggested by the team doing the Environmental Assessment are shown in a light grey. That one in the mid right is too close to our part of the province,

Problem is the Minister of Transportation has no idea what the issue is.  He will have a report to read and there will be maps with lines all over it and colour graphics to show where a new highway could go and a list of all the options.  But the man has not driven up Walkers Line to Derry Road and east to Bell School Line and then zig- zag across to Guelph Line coming out at Side Road #1 and glide down Guelph Line slowly so that he gets a sense of what our city is really all about.

Then take him to dinner at Spencer’s on the Waterfront when the sun is setting and make sure his seat gives him a view of the pier we are building.

No one has ever taken the man to Mount Nemo, where he can gaze out over farm fields and golf courses and see the CN Tower on an average day.

That’s what Burlington is about and those people at Queen’s Park need to know that.  It isn’t about a road through a piece of geography to create jobs.  It is about the quality of life here in our city.

Councillor John Taylor has plans to bring the Minister of Transportation to the city and let him see what we are talking about.  He might also want to include some of the potential Liberal leaders in that invitation to visit the Escarpment.  If they get a good look at who we are they might see an opportunity to add Burlington to the list of Liberal members in the Legislature.

On the bright side for the city is the very recent Ontario Municipal Joint Board that found for the city and the people at PERL (Protecting the Escarpment and Rural Lands) when they denied the application for an additional aggregate exaction permit.  Long term we can see the end of aggregate mining on the Escarpment.  Perhaps that OMB decision is the beginning of a new direction for the province.

 

Return to the Front page
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Comments are closed.